Both Uses of
epoch
in
The Idiot
- Now for fifteen years at least I have studied the Apocalypse, and she agrees with me in thinking that the present is the epoch represented by the third horse, the black one whose rider holds a measure in his hand.†
Chpt 2.2 *
- It is a terrible idea, but it is historic, it is statistic; it is indeed one of those facts which enables an intelligent historian to reconstruct the physiognomy of a special epoch, for it brings out this further point with mathematical accuracy, that the clergy were in those days sixty times richer and more flourishing than the rest of humanity and perhaps sixty times fatter also….†
Chpt 3.4
Definition:
-
(epoch) a significant period of timeThe exact meaning of epoch depends upon its context. For example:
- "an epoch of scientific discovery" -- an historical period
- "during the Late Jurassic epoch" -- a unit of geological time smaller than a period and larger than an age
- "the epoch moment of the photo" -- the time of an astronomical measurement